Disney Has A Chocolate Factory, And It Is Pretty Magical

It's the only place you can get Mickey S'mores.

Jul 3, 2017

The amount of sweets and treats you can find at Walt Disney World is staggering. Everything from dinner plate-sized cinnamon rolls and Minnie Mouse-esque caramel apples to classic ice cream bars and cookies. But until The Ganachery at Disney Springs opened in 2015, there was no one place to find something a little fancier. Definitely a step above any candy or sweets you'll find in the parks, The Ganachery serves about 10,000 guests per month.

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Chelsea Lupkin

The main event are the 18 flavors of ganache, which are made in-house. Flavors like Egyptian Sea Salt, Raspberry, Matcha and Passion Fruit all have their fans, but it's the Caramel Fleur de Seul (salted caramel) that is the most popular, according to Amanda Lauder, chocolatier. Lauder says one thing that really makes The Ganachery stand apart is its custom dark chocolate blend.

"It was created exclusively for The Ganachery," Lauder says. "It is a dark 65 percent chocolate with single origin cacao beans from the Dominican Republic. When you are enjoying a piece of ganache made with our dark chocolate, you truly cannot get that experience anywhere else in the world."

To make the ganache, Lauder and her team measure out all the ingredients, and then those are mixed using a piece of machinery called the Stephan. "It combines the ingredients, while heating them, and it works under a vacuum pressure so it pulls the air out. It helps us get a nice, creamy consistency," Lauder says." Then the ganache is casted into a frame where it sits for a full 24 hours. Once set, the squares are cut into squares using a pastry guitar (a grid-like contraption that uses guitar strings to evenly slice the sweets). The squares pass through a flowing tunnel of chocolate, getting topped with a layer of milk or dark chocolate. Then they're hand decorated.

Lauder says they wanted to created an item that used the shop's chocolate, but that guests could take with them without having it melt immediately in the Florida heat. Enter, the Mickey S'mores. To make them, Lauder and her team take handmade graham crackers, smother them in a ganache spread and sprinkle that with sea salt. Then, they pile on a toasted square of vanilla bean marshmallow and a sheet of the shop's custom-made chocolate. The chocolate's melted, using a torch, before they top it with another graham cracker and add the finishing touch: a Mickey face made out of powdered sugar.

Chelsea Lupkin

That creative presentation has made it pop up on many an Instagram feed, too:

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